‘Revised’ plans submitted for larger HMO in city street

A HMO plan for a house in Newport has been revised to include space for an extra prospective resident.

New proposals show the six-bedroom house at 60 Ombersley Road could be converted into a HMO (house in multiple occupation) for nine people.

City council planners approved a previous application, in January, for an eight-bed HMO conversion there.

HMOs are typically properties for individual, unrelated adults who have their own bedrooms but share other communal areas, such as kitchens or living rooms.

In this case, the “revised proposal” by applicant Simon Bell, of Mathieson and Bell Ltd, would update the previous plans by creating an extra bedroom and moving some shared spaces into an existing garage.

Agent Lloyd Jones, of LRJ Planning Ltd, said the new application for the nine-bed HMO in the “generously proportioned” property “makes more efficient use of the site by incorporating the existing garage to provide an enlarged communal kitchen and living area and dedicated cycle storage”.

This revision will end up “enhancing the overall functionality and amenity of the accommodation”, Mr Jones said in a planning statement.

The agent also described the site as “sustainable” and near “a raft of amenities” – and claimed the increase in prospective occupants, from eight to nine, “would not give rise to any unacceptable impacts on residential amenity”.

Documents submitted to the local authority show councillors Matthew Evans and David Fouweather, who represent the Allt-yr-Yn ward, have criticised the application, however.

“The application will present considerable pressure on what is already limited parking in Upton and Ombersley Roads,” said Cllr Fouweather.

“I would also like to strongly object to yet another application for an HMO in an area already overdeveloped with them,” added Cllr Evans. “It will do nothing to enhance the area and will be detrimental to the visual amenities in the area.”

The application is out for public consultation until Monday July 7, and can be viewed on the Newport City Council website under reference 25/0471.